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Sunday, December 28, 2014

#MyCardMonday

I have been writing a little bit with my weekly #MyCardMonday posts every week and have enjoyed putting a story with each of the cards. If you stop by and read my blog on a regular basis it's usually pretty obvious that most of the cards come out of my collection of Cardinals or Durham Bulls (Rays) with a few other sentimental favorites mixed in along the way. Today's card is a little bit Cardinals and a little bit Durham Bulls.

I wanted to pick this card up in 2008 when it came out with the Stadium Club set that summer. Mather was a bench player for the Cardinals and showed good pop. While this Stadium Club autograph was not outrageously priced at the time, it was selling for more than $5 which is probably a few too many dollars for a Joe Mather card. At some point Mather was claimed by the Braves and ended up spending the beginning parts of the 2011 season playing for the Gwinnett Braves.

The first baseball game I took my son to was the Durham Bulls April 17th game against the Gwinnett Braves. The afternoon did not end well for my hometown Bulls who lost the game 18-7. The Bulls were actually winning the game entering the sixth inning, but the Braves posted a 10 spot in the top half of the frame and blew the game wide open. I still had a great time taking the little man to the game.

Mather batted fifth that day for the Braves and went 2 for 6 with a double. More importantly it reminded me of Mather's Stadium Club autograph. A week after the Braves/Bulls game the Mather card popped into my mail box and has been in my collection ever since. I think the card ended up costing me three or four dollars with shipping, but one of my favorite cards because it reminds me of my son's first baseball game.